Website: www.wrse.org.uk Email: [email protected] MARCH 2021

Welcome from Chris Murray MBE, new WRSE independent Chair

Indeed, the parallels between the energy will supply 21 million litres of water a day sector, where I have worked for over four to , enabled by the decades, and the world of water are striking. Thicket Reservoir in south . In both, resilience of supplies is absolutely Having had an early opportunity to discuss key and the challenges to be overcome are this project with colleagues, it’s clear how significant. I believe that in order to meet much of a trailblazer it’s been, providing those challenges, we will need continued invaluable insight and learning into how innovation and cooperation, involving the we can approach the development and water companies, regulators, Government realisation of new regional infrastructure. and a wide spectrum of stakeholders. This significant water supply asset has I fully appreciate that I am joining WRSE been designed in a completely new way. at a critical point in the collective effort to with the reservoir being developed in boost the resilience of our water supplies. Water’s supply area to ensure Furthermore, I am eager to lead the reliable supplies for Southern Water’s CHRIS MURRAY organisation into the next phase of the plan customers in Hampshire. and beyond, working with others to find the The WRSE team is hugely proud that our best possible way forward for everyone. Hello! regional strategy has enabled the reservoir I am delighted to have joined the I am very fortunate to be taking over project to progress. This is a real sign of WRSE team and pleased to have from Simon Cocks, my predecessor as a significant shift towards strengthened WRSE Chair, and would like to thank him regional planning to increase resilience and this opportunity to be talking to you for his hard work and clear leadership deliver environmental improvements, by through my first newsletter foreword in developing our regional plan. Having identifying the best value schemes. as WRSE’s independent Chair. worked closely with Simon in the past, I am The forward progress on Havant Thicket acutely aware of the capability and skill he Reservoir adds to the momentum that’s This is a role that I consider to be of vital will have brought to the WRSE team and I building, as we develop our new regional importance, given the significance of the look forward to building on the excellent plan, ahead of the draft plan being published job at hand and the level of collaboration foundations he has laid over the past few for consultation in early 2022. and cooperation needed across a range years. of stakeholders to achieve our collective Working together with Government, In many ways, it was fitting that one goals. regulators and a range of stakeholders, of Simon’s last duties as Chair was to major strides have been made over the past I am relishing the opportunity to work speak at a special online event hosted by year, laying the foundations for our plan and with you to deliver a multi-sector regional Portsmouth Water and Southern Water. updating and refining the information we are plan that will provide more resilient water This was held to mark a major milestone using to create it. supplies to all, deliver an improved and in the two companies’ ongoing innovative protected environment and contribute to collaboration to secure resilient water What we have achieved together puts us the UK’s green recovery. resources for the South East and protect in a strong position to move ahead. I look forward to working with you all to further The South East of faces much internationally-renowned chalk streams. develop our plan and would like to thank greater challenges than most other parts This solution, which was identified through everyone for your input and efforts to date, of the country when it comes to water WRSE’s previous strategy, is a shining as well as for your continued contributions resources. Through our plan, which could example of just what can be achieved with in the months ahead. lead to £17 billion of new investment over hard work and joined-up thinking. the next 75 years, we need to address these As you can read more of later in this With best regards, major issues, based on joined-up thinking newsletter, Portsmouth Water and Southern to identify the right solutions for customers, Water have signed an 80-year Bulk Supply the environment and society. Agreement, under which Portsmouth Water Chris Murray.

WRSE News Page 1 Water Resources South East

Chris Murray profile and Q&A Chris is a highly experienced Chairman, CEO, Non-Executive and Executive Director, with a strong track record in people leadership and engaging with stakeholders at all levels. His expertise comes from 40 years of experience in the UK energy sector, with Chris’ professional knowledge spanning a wide range of areas including Change and Stakeholder Management, Regulation, Asset Management and Network Operations. Chris has held three CEO positions during his career and can draw upon Non-Executive experience over the course of almost three decades during which he has held a number of previous chair roles. In the 2016 New Year’s Honours list, he was awarded an MBE for his services to skills and to charity.

Q&A with Chris

What attracted you to the role of WRSE What are your immediate priorities in your new Q independent Chair? Q role? The sheer significance of the challenge and the opportunity The first thing I want to do is to get to know the WRSE to work with a group of people who are already working team and allow them to get to know me, so that we have A effectively together - having recognised that the future we A the most effective working relationship possible. I know the all need cannot be met by siloed plans. team will help me understand who all the key stakeholders are and I’m keen to meet these contacts and listen to their views as soon In my career to date, I have been fortunate enough to play a part in as possible, as well as engaging more broadly with all interested delivering solutions to significant sectoral problems. I relish these parties. challenges, as the sense of personal satisfaction when they are resolved is enormous. As we all, hopefully, emerge from the Coronavirus pandemic, I’m really looking forward to getting out and about and meeting our However, this is a huge, multi-generational challenge, so my job is stakeholders, as well as meeting and working collaboratively with to help the WRSE team deliver as many parts of the solution as we the Chairs of the other regional water groups, to ensure we are truly can, before ‘passing the baton’ on to future generations to keep up as joined up as we possibly can be. I also want to get to grips with the good work. the detail of our regional plan and all the thinking that has gone into its creation and development so far.

How will your wealth of experience from the What do you see as the biggest challenges and Q energy sector help in developing WRSE’s new Q opportunities for WRSE? regional water resources plan? The opportunity is enormous - we can genuinely help to I believe that my experience in chairing several companies, A avoid future drought in our area and ensure customers can A groups and committees in the past will be very valuable. enjoy continued security of water supplies. This will require I have also been the CEO of two joint venture companies, investment both in improved infrastructure and to reduce leakage. where an understanding of the needs of all the various parties However, in common with my experience in energy, I firmly believe involved has been essential. that the most significant challenge is this - as consumers of utility At WRSE, we have numerous member companies around the table, services, we enjoy outstanding levels of reliability, as a result of along with Government, regulators and a variety of stakeholders, which we tend to take those services for granted. This is particularly and harnessing their skills and capabilities will be a key part of the case for water, where the costs, compared to other utilities, are my role. relatively low, so there is less of a ‘buying’ decision when ‘turning on the tap’, particularly for household consumers. I’m used to working on plans that involve long-life assets, customer engagement and the need to balance affordability, sustainability and Frankly, I think we should all be much more mindful of the precious security of supply. resource of water that we are using, every time we do so. We need to understand the true value of water and the impact of not having I expect all of those factors to be prevalent, as we seek to tackle the access to reliable and high quality supplies on a daily basis. challenges of climate change, population growth and protecting our environment in the WRSE area. I’m also conscious that the water companies are seeking to meet the needs of both their customers and their investors, whilst delivering against multiple legal and regulatory requirements. Hence, I am incredibly encouraged to see all parties around the table, as we seek to achieve aligned incentives and a secure future for water supplies.

Page 2 Engaging with you There are further opportunities for you to get involved in shaping our regional plan during the year ahead. These include the following listed below, ahead of our draft plan being published for consultation in the early part of 2022. Please click here to view a timetable for our engagement with customers and stakeholders to gather people’s views and feedback.

Remember, you can also keep up to date with our engagement and consultation activity via wrse.uk.engagementhq.com/consultations.

MARCH We published our updated Future Water Resource Requirements document. This provides a summary of the planning challenge we face in the region and identifies where we expect the forecasts we provided in March 2020 to change, based on work we have completed so far. We also highlight how we have responded to feedback received from stakeholders through our previous consultation.

APRIL We will publish our response to the feedback we received during our ‘Best Value’ plan consultation and later publish the final list of ‘Best Value’ criteria and metrics - Please see our separate article for more.

MAY We will be staging a series of stakeholder webinars to explore the various water resource options we are looking at for our regional plan.

JUNE / JULY We will be hosting online workshops for stakeholders to discuss the alternative water resource programmes we are considering for our plan and our research with customers on this issue.

Creating a Best Value regional plan We would like to thank everyone In April, we will publish our response to the who gave us their views during our feedback people provided. In the meantime, recent consultation on our proposals our consultation document and recordings of the consultation webinars can be found for creating a regional resilience plan on our dedicated engagement platform at that will deliver ‘Best Value’. wrse.uk.engagementhq.com/consultations. Our ambition is to deliver a multi-sector We had over 600 visitors to our consultation regional resilience plan that provides webpage and more than 75 stakeholders additional value in the areas that matter most attended the two consultation webinars we to the people of the South East - going beyond hosted. a focus on keeping bills as low as possible. We received 23 detailed consultation So, we developed a suggested set of criteria responses from a range of organisations and and metrics to enable us to assess the extra our plan. We are using what people told us individuals including the , value resulting from the different water during the consultation to update and finalise the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) and resource options we identify in developing the detail of our approach. South East Rivers Trust.

Page 3 Water Resources South East

Positive progress on catchment options We have now completed initial The schemes have all been screened and put We have also shared all the schemes, assessments on the 380+ catchment under one of four categories listed below. including those in Category 4, with water companies that are developing Drainage and options put forward to us, via our We will be developing a portfolio for each ‘Storymap’ online tool, by a range of Wastewater Management Plans (DWMPs), surface water management catchment in our as there may be some projects which have stakeholders. This was for potential region. inclusion in our multi-sector regional benefits across both water and drainage / wastewater planning. resilience plan. We have also updated These will set out the water resource deficit everyone who submitted an idea to us in each area, including the water environment If they are schemes that are better progressed issues which have been identified and the to set out next steps. by a catchment partnership or similar group, existing knowledge about each catchment. they will remain on our ‘Storymap’ online tool and we hope that organisations will Via a series of online workshops we held in The portfolios will also show the options that collaborate around these opportunities where October 2020 and subsequent engagement, could be implemented (Categories 1-3). Once they have the potential to provide wider more than 300 local catchment issues have developed, the portfolios will be shared with benefit to the local area. been identified to help inform our plan, in the relevant water companies and catchment addition to the possible catchment schemes partnerships to help finalise them, ready for that have been suggested to us. investment modelling.

Category 1: Schemes that should be developed further as potential options for our regional plan and which will now proceed to our Catchment Options Feasibility Screening Framework - 157 schemes have been placed in this category.

Category 2: Schemes where further work is needed to understand the feasibility of the options, including if funding is required for investigations or pilots by the relevant water company in the next business plan / investment period (2025-30) - there are 42 schemes under this category.

Category 3: Schemes that need further desktop work to better understand their feasibility and potential location, before any investigations or pilots can be carried out - 84 schemes are in this category.

Category 4: Schemes that do not meet the scope of our catchment work, or do not have the potential to provide notable water resources and environmental benefits - the remaining 100 schemes have been placed in this category.

Latest on Strategic Environmental Assessment

To support the development of environment. The SEA process is conducted regional plan. We will also soon finish our our regional resilience plan, an at a strategic level and enables consultation assessment of the catchment options and demand management strategies. environmental assessment process on the potential impacts of a plan with a wide range of stakeholders. is being undertaken. This includes a Then in May and June, we will carry out Strategic Environmental Assessment Last year, we asked for feedback on the the SEA of the alternative water resource proposed scope for the SEA and we will soon programmes we are considering. (SEA), as well as a range of other be publishing an update on how the views we assessments, such as around This will also enable us to produce an heard have shaped our approach. environmental report setting out the potential biodiversity and natural capital. More broadly, we are close to completing the impact of the alternative programmes assessment of all of the supply-side water and contribute to our identification of the SEA works to inform the decision-making resource options against the SEA objectives. preferred programme that will form our draft process through the identification and regional plan. assessment of the significant and cumulative This will then enable the SEA metrics to be effects a plan, or programme, may have on the set, for use in investment modelling for our

Page 4 WRSE backs water stress proposals The Environment Agency (EA) has shared its updated classification of water stress, which shows that around two-thirds of people in England are now living in a ‘water-stressed’ area.

Sarah Chare, EA Director of Operations for the South and East, explained: “Climate change, population growth and the need to improve our resilience to droughts are all putting pressure on water supplies in areas of England. If we don’t take action now, in 25 years, water demand will exceed availability in many areas. We need to find solutions that balance the future water needs of communities, businesses and the environment. “Turning this around requires a society- wide effort. Water companies, Government, the Environment Agency, farmers and individuals all have roles to play. In that spirit, we asked for views from all individuals and organisations on our revised approach and potential solutions. “Our consultation provided up-to-date evidence on water resources, so that water companies experiencing the most severe pressures adopt the highest level of water- saving measures, helping to manage supplies in the future and ensure our rivers, lakes and streams are protected.” At WRSE, we have given our backing to the Low winter rainfall has impacted water levels at Bewl Water Reservoir in Kent in the past proposals that were published for consultation by the EA - these would see seven additional “We believe this strengthens the case the National Framework for Water Resources, parts of England officially designated as for mandatory water labelling to reduce and consider: being under ‘serious water stress’, including demand. Furthermore, as well as enabling the area served by our member company • A long-term view of water availability to water companies to install water meters on Portsmouth Water. 2050 a compulsory basis, we firmly consider that WRSE Organisational Director Trevor Bishop, local authorities in water-stressed areas • Environmental needs, including chalk commented: “We welcome the proposed should be required to set higher water streams changes to determining water stress, efficiency standards for new developments.” • Impacts of climate change and population particularly as they would see Portsmouth growth Water move to the same water stress rating The additional water company areas as all the other companies serving the South that have been provisionally identified as • Ensuring water supplies are resilient to a East. That said, we also think that moving to seriously water-stressed under the EA’s 1-in-500-year drought a regional classification of water stress would updated assessments are Portsmouth Water, • Planned water efficiency and leakage make sense, now that we are strengthening Cambridge Water, Water, South improvements. planning at a regional level. Staffordshire Water, an area of South West When it’s determined that an area is in Water, and the Isles of Scilly. “The updated classification shows that the serious water stress, the water company for The Environment Secretary will formally majority of England is now classed as being that area must publish a Water Resources determine areas of water stress later in ‘serious water stress’. This means it’s now Management Plan (WRMP) that considers all this year. not just a problem facing a handful of water options to manage demand more effectively companies, but a national issue that requires The Environment Agency’s new water stress - including metering and greater leakage Government action. maps will use data from water companies and reduction.

Page 5 Water Resources South East

Landmark water resources agreement signed Portsmouth Water and Southern Water are celebrating a major milestone in their joint work to provide resilient future water resources for the South East, while safeguarding world- famous chalk streams in the region, the River Test and the River Itchen in Hampshire. How Havant Thicket Reservoir could look, once completed The two companies recently signed an 80- year Bulk Supply Agreement (BSA), which for Southern’s customers in Hampshire. It benefits for customers, the environment and will see Portsmouth Water supply 21 million will also allow Southern Water to reduce its wider society.” litres of water a day to Southern Water - an abstraction from the River Test and River Under the BSA, Portsmouth Water will arrangement which will be made possible by Itchen. construct Havant Thicket Reservoir, so it is Havant Thicket Reservoir being constructed “This is the first time a significant water operational by 2029. Planning applications to the east of Portsmouth. supply asset has been developed in this way for the reservoir scheme were submitted This landmark achievement was marked by and we hope it will establish a blueprint for late last year, with a decision on granting a virtual event held in February, with a range others to follow.” permission expected this spring. of VIPs from Government, regulators and the Southern Water CEO Ian McAulay added: Further investigations are also underway to wider water sector attending, along with “It has taken a lot of hard work and an explore if Havant Thicket Reservoir can play board members and staff from Portsmouth appreciation of new ways of working by an even greater role in supporting resilience Water and Southern Water. our two companies and regulators to reach in the future, through new transfers and as Bob Taylor, Portsmouth Water CEO, said: this point and Bob and I would like to thank a conduit for recycled or desalinated water - “Together with Southern Water, we’re proud everyone involved for all their efforts. please see the article below for more. to be developing Havant Thicket Reservoir in “We look forward to continuing to work our supply area, to provide reliable supplies together to deliver a range of significant

Strategic water resource options through first review The four strategic regional water secure resilient water supplies and deliver resource solutions that could provide benefits to customers, the environment and additional water to Hampshire society as a whole.” have cleared the first checkpoint Simon Moody, Deputy Director at the by regulator Ofwat. They will now Environment Agency, said: “Southern Water has a pressing need to fill go forward to the next stage in • A project for a reservoir in ’s the gap between its supply and demand the assessment process, with area and transfer through Wessex Water’s for water in Hampshire to protect the updated submissions to be made in area to Southern Water (Bristol Water, environment and provide a secure supply of September to RAPID, the Regulators’ Wessex Water and Southern Water) water for its customers. Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure • A raw water transfer, via a 40km pipeline, “This is an important milestone in a process Development. from Portsmouth Water’s proposed Havant that will allow them to expedite the schemes Thicket Reservoir to Southern Water’s and actions that are required to ensure a The proposals include: Otterbourne Supply Works (Portsmouth resilient water supply and the much needed Water and Southern Water). • A new desalination plant near Southampton, protection to our precious chalk streams.” which would be the largest seawater David Black, Chief Regulation officer at Ofwat desalination system in the UK (Southern (Interim CEO from April 2021), said: Water) “The first checkpoint has highlighted some • A water recycling scheme that’s being encouraging signs of collaboration and I am developed as an alternative to desalination confident that the companies involved will (Southern Water) continue to drive forward solutions that will

Page 6 What we’ve been up to:

MEYRICK GOUGH, TREVOR BISHOP, WRSE Technical WRSE Organisational Director“ Director“ Con Con Making good progress with detailed Joined the Greater London Authority’s technical work for our regional plan - all Water Advisory Board forecasts completed and assurance checks being carried out Met with Defra and the Environment Agency to discuss how the approach to For example, finalising our supply forecasts environmental resilience will help our and suite of options, including multi-sector regional plan support the Government’s forecasts. Different sectors have given us 25-Year Environment Plan a clear picture of their future needs and submitted more than 30 options for our plan Presented at the national Regional Flood Working with the Environment Agency and Coastal Committees (RFCC) Chairs’ and WRSE companies on the environmental meeting to explore opportunities for destination for our plan, such as how sharing best practice between flood and abstractions will need to change to deliver water resource management benefits for nature Presented at the CLA’s South East Co-operating with the other regional groups, conference to debate how a multi-sector setting out how we will align our plans at approach is key to a sustainable water the end of the year. future.

Welcome to the WRSE family Having taken up her role in December, She then moved to the newly-established Southern Water’s new Head of College of Policing and has served as Director Communications Kate Tonge has been of Communications at the Royal Society of busy getting involved in supporting Chemistry and the Institute of Advanced our engagement and communications Motorists. work. At Southern Water, Kate leads on all internal, media and PR, stakeholder and policy communications and engagement activities, Kate is new to the water sector, having as well as campaigns, brand, web and Southern Water’s Kate Tonge worked as a journalist, before spending 16 social media. years in communications with West Mercia “I’ve been made very welcome and I Police and Cambridgeshire Constabulary. She said: “I’m delighted to have joined the look forward to working with colleagues During that time, she supported officers world of water, where there’s a number of across WRSE and its member companies across a range of crime prevention parallels with my time in policing. Not least, as we continue to engage with customers campaigns, community engagement activity, as we provide an absolutely essential service and stakeholders on developing our new major incidents and crime investigations. for society. regional plan.”

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